EA bedding more publishers for Origin

EA has released an announcement, stating that they have signed several new publishers for Origin. SEGA, Team 17 Software Limited, Rebellion, Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. and more have signed up to bring the total number of publishers and developers supporting the Origin service to 35. This does not go into effect immediately but you should start to see downloadable content from these partners in the coming months.

SEGA is of course excited about this move. “The PC Market is continuing to grow and the prospect of offering the Total War franchise and the SEGA range of PC titles to the Origin audience is very exciting”, stated the UK Managing Director and PC Digital Distribution Director at SEGA. Given the proclaimed 11 million registered Origin users, this could turn into a great opportunity for these companies to connect with potential customers they missed in other platforms.

How companies like SEGA are going to draw customers to Origin is rather unclear given that Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai is available for pre-order on Origin and Steam for $29.99. Compounded with the fact that EA’s service still evolving and growing while in production—which makes headaches on both ends—this leaves the direction of their business model for the service unclear. Will they be looking to jack someone else’s turf or attempt to make a niche in the pre-existing market? Origin does have its faults and a surprising need to be restarted for updates and to get new media to appear, but it is maturing at a rapid pace.

Hm, I wonder how this will look in a year or so, competitionwise between Steam and Origin..

This is where EA can try and really push the social side of their service and make it a lot of things Steam is not or trying to be. They could do things like open up their chat to be added to pidgin under a standard protocol, auto post to fb/google+/myspace????, forum signatures, mimic some of the social sites with features they offer connecting users to each other or notifications. They are already handling the game launcher, BattleLog, in a manner that others are not.